Maybe this was the subliminal result of the advertisements bombarded to the public by the recently concluded 2010 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by South Africa. Or maybe because it's just the perfect season for this plant to emerge from the ground and show off its lovely bloom.
As I was going through the blog entries about the African Blood lily, I had this feeling that I've seen this plant before, not in someone else's garden but in our own. I just can't ascertain that this is indeed the same plant as the one I saw, until recently when I received the picture below.
Some Football lilies growing in the original garden.
Mom confirmed that we have had this plant in our original garden for many, many years now. The original garden is a small plot just outside our humble house and is enclosed by a wooden fence.
The reason why I'm vaguely familiar with it is mainly because well, I rarely visit the farm, and when I'm there the plants are usually in hibernation. In one of my rare visits though, I saw a few of the flowers but they were on their final days and were already exhibiting a rather tired appearance. That was probably the reason why I just took a very quick glance and moved on. What I didn't see, or perhaps failed to notice were the beautiful foliage that appear next after they bloom.
The young Football lilies in the nursery. They will be planted in the upper garden when they are mature enough.
Now that I know that this beautiful plant is able to thrive in our garden, I asked Mom if she could propagate the ones we have so we could also plant them in the upper garden. Little did I know that she had already done so.
And so concludes my contribution to the ever growing number of blog entries about the African Blood lily or the Football lily.
